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Friday, June 15, 2012

Another Man

There is another man in my knitting life of late. First there was Stephen West designer of my Spectra. And now there is Franklin Habit.

He of the It Itches knitting cartoon fame. Franklin created a lace sampler project for the Knitty Summer 2009 issue

and it has been my 'on the side' project for the last few weeks. Franklin speaks, in the introduction to his sampler pattern, about being fascinated with lace knitting. He imagines, spending months, perhaps a year, on a lace piece that is so fine it slips through a wedding ring. He goes on to say if the thought of that kind of knititng commitment causes you to break out in a cold sweat, try the lace sampler. Certainly I know my cold-sweat, breaking point and the sampler seemed to me, a much saner approach to lace knitting.

Franklin gives five different lace patterns in his sampler and I have knit them 21 stitches wide with three garter stitches on each edge. 27 stitches. Even I, infrequent and not-so-good lace knitter that I am can manage that! Mine will be a scarf. Certainly, doubling or tripling the width would make a gorgeous shawl.

Or using thicker yarn. My sampler is knit with Fingering Weight yarn

with a cotton component for use as a summer scarf. But worsted weight wool and triple or quadruple the stitches - still not many - would give a great cozy winter wrap.

There is lots to recommend in this project. The narrow width means it is pretty hard to get lost on your way across the row - although not impossible, I am here to tell you. Each pattern is separated by a few rows of garter - a built in life line. Clever, Franklin. The charts are large enough that even this knitter who could use a new pair of glasses, can read them.

There is no rule on how many repeats of the lace you do before beginning a different pattern. I made each section about seven inches long before switching patterns. My piece, with all five patterns knit once, is now about half my desired, finished length.

Since I worked the five in the order given, now, at mid-scarf, I intend to reverse the order so both ends of the scarf will have the same pattern. I can feel the creative knitters cringing.

Stephen, now Franklin. I wonder who will pop into my knititng life next?